HOCKEY

HOCKEY; N.H.L. Talks Held Quietly; Season Is Cut By 4 Games

By MURRAY CHASS

Published: October 25, 1994

On the same day the National Hockey League announced cancellation of four games from the 84-game schedule of each team, negotiators for the league and the union met secretly in Chicago and made no progress yesterday, leaving the expectation that more substantial cancellations are sure to follow.

On the 24th day of the lockout, Commissioner Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow, the players' labor leader, succeeded in their quest to keep their first bargaining session in two weeks secret from the news media until it was over. But they did not succeed in their effort to narrow the gap between them. No further talks are expected this week.

Both sides disclosed after the fact that the meeting had taken place. Bettman and Goodenow decided last week that they would meet out of view of the news media.

"The report from our people was there was no progress," said Arthur Pincus, the N.H.L. vice president for public relations. Neither Bettman nor Goodenow returned telephone calls to his office.

The two sides had not met since Oct. 10. The next day the league rejected the new proposal the players made at that meeting, with Bettman terming it "a step backward." They did not go forward yesterday.

"There were no changes in position on either side," said a person who attended the session.

That means the two sides remained far apart in their tax plans.

The owners have proposed a graduated tax on payrolls that would reach a maximum of 122 percent on the last increment of payroll and a 3 percent tax on gate receipts. The money would go into a revenue-sharing pool that would be shared by the low-revenue teams.

The union has proposed taxing the payrolls of the four highest-revenue teams -- the Rangers, Detroit, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh -- at a rate of 7 percent. The next four teams on the revenue list would incur a 5 percent tax on their payrolls, the four after that a 3 percent tax and the bottom four of the top 16 teams a 1 percent tax.

The union believes the owners' tax rate would prompt the highest-spending teams to reduce their payrolls to avoid the steep tax penalty. The owners feel the players' tax rate does not put enough "drag" on salaries. The owners say they don't want to slash salaries but rather slow the escalation.

The groups that participated in yesterday's meeting were smaller than in recent sessions. Each side had four representatives.

Steve McAllister, manager of media relations for the union, said after speaking with Goodenow that no new proposals had been presented and that the two sides had held a general discussion. He said they had talked about future meetings but had set no dates. The person who attended the session said no further talks were expected at least until next week.

That means the lockout will pass the one-month mark -- next Monday -- without an agreement. When the first month of the season goes unplayed, each team will have missed an average of 13 games.

In formally acknowledging for the first time yesterday that it will not be able to play a full 84-game schedule, the league made a conservative start to what is certain to be more sizable slashes in the schedule. Teams already have missed an average of 10 games each.

The league still won't use the word lockout. Its announcement said four games had been canceled from each team's schedule because of the "work stoppage" caused by the labor dispute. Each team will lose two home games and two road games.

Until they know when the season will begin, league officials will not cancel specific games. They have been working on revised schedules with a smaller number of games, but that number will change with each chunk of time lost.

No matter when the season begins, officials want to maintain the schedule format. The announcement said that in redrawing the schedule, officials will consider competitive balance and divisional and conference play as well as arena availability and travel.

Some games that have been missed could be rescheduled to maintain the scheduling balance the league desires.

The league did not make a blanket ticket-refund announcement, leaving that to individual teams. -------------------- Yashin Goes to Minors

Aleksei Yashin, the Ottawa Senators' leading scorer as a rookie last season, has become the first National Hockey League player idled by the lockout to sign a minor league contract, in his case a temporary deal with the Las Vegas Thunder of the International Hockey League.

A 6-foot-3-inch center, the 20-year-old Yashin had been seeking to renegotiate his multiyear N.H.L. contract on the basis of his stunning play last season. He led the Senators in both goals (30) and assists (49) in 83 games and was a candidate for rookie of the year.

Although individual N.H.L. contracts generally bar players from playing with other teams, the league has said that it would not object to player signings for temporary minor league duty during the lockout.